1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet conveying apparatus provided in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image forming apparatus according to the related art, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-143155 discloses an image forming apparatus having a configuration in which a plate spring member applies a force to a conveying follower roller facing a conveying driving roller.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-213982 discloses a configuration in which a bearing is provided with a boss and a wound spring is mounted on the boss to apply a force to a roller.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-170825 discloses a configuration in which an axial portion of an inverting roller is inserted into an insertion groove in which the upper side of a bearing is opened and the upper end opening portion of the insertion groove is blocked with a dustproof sheet.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-143155, when a conveying follower roller is detached to perform maintenance or repair, a plate spring member is removed in a positional relation among a guide plate, the conveying follower roller, and the plate spring member, and then the conveying follower roller is detached. Therefore, when the conveying follower roller is installed on the inside of an exterior cover, the exterior cover has to be detached and the guide plate has to be detached in order to detach the conveying follower roller. Therefore, there is a problem that an extensive disassembly operation is performed.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-213982, since the wound spring is mounted on the boss installed in the bearing of the roller, the boss contributes to stability of the applied force generated by the wound spring. The semicircular bearing receiving an axial portion of the roller receives an impact caused when the front ends of various sheets with different thicknesses passing through a sheet conveying path collide against a nip portion of a pair of rollers. Further, sheet powders produced from the sheets are deposited on a semicircular rubbing surface receiving the axial portion of the roller, and thus the bearing receives an impact caused when the front ends of the sheets collide against the depositions. Furthermore, the bearing receives an impact caused when the rear ends of the sheets are separated from the pair of rollers. Due to such influences, there is a probability that the axial portion of the roller is separated from the semicircular rubbing surface receiving the axial portion of the roller.
When one roller is installed on the inside of the exterior cover, there is a problem that a separate component is necessary to prevent the roller installed on the side of an apparatus body from being detached.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-170825, the dustproof sheet is attached to prevent the axial portion from coming off or rattling. Thus, since a protruding object or the like is covered with the dustproof sheet and a sheet conveying surface becomes gentle, the curled front end of the sheet can be prevented from being caught. However, when the inverting roller or the axial portion is exchanged, the dustproof sheet is removed. When exchanging the inverting roller or the axial portion is completed, a glue of a pasting surface of the dustproof sheet is cleaned up, and thus a new dustproof sheet is re-covered. Therefore, a component cost may increase, and a sheet may be hooked due to an erroneous work for attaching the dustproof sheet in some cases since the work is not stable.
In order to solve the problems described above, the invention provides an image forming apparatus in which a work for mounting and detaching a follower rotating member facing a conveying rotating member can be easily performed and a sheet can be satisfactorily conveyed.